New urban-rural typology of Nordic countries 2023

This is a list of urban areas in the Nordic countries by population.

Urban areas in the Nordic countries An urban area in the Nordic countries, with the exception of Iceland, is defined as a distinct statistical concept used to differentiate population clusters independent of municipal borders. The population is measured on a national level, independe ...

are measured at national level, independently by each country's statistical office.

Statistics Sweden Statistics Sweden ( ; SCB, ) is the Swedish government agency operating under the Ministry of Finance and responsible for producing official statistics for decision-making, debate and research. The agency's responsibilities include: * developin ...

uses the term ''tätort'' (urban settlement),

Statistics Finland Statistics Finland ( , ) is the national statistical institution in Finland, established in 1865 to serve as an information service and to provide statistics and expertise in the statistical sciences. The institution employs more than 800 exper ...

also uses ''tätort'' in Swedish and ''taajama'' in Finnish, Statistics Denmark uses ''byområde'' (city), while

Statistics Norway Statistics Norway (, abbreviated to ''SSB'') is the Norwegian statistics bureau. It was established in 1876. Relying on a staff of about 1,000, Statistics Norway publish about 1,000 new statistical releases every year on its web site. All rele ...

uses ''tettsted'' (urban settlement). A common statistical definition between the

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

was agreed in 1960, which defines an urban area as a contiguous built-up area with a population of at least 200 and where the maximum distance between dwellings is 200 metres, excluding roads, car parks, parks, sports grounds and cemeteries - regardless of the boundaries of the municipality, district or county. Despite the common definition, the different statistical offices have different approaches to carrying out these measurements, resulting in slight differences between countries. The Nordic definition is unique to these countries and should not be confused with international concepts of

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

urban areas An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

in general. In 2010, Finland
stat.fi
changed its definition. This means that, according to official statistics, the land area covered by urban areas is three times larger in Finland than in Norway, although the total urban population is about the same
ssb.no
. It also means that the population of a Danish 'byområder' is usually less than half the population of the 'functional urban area' as defined by

Eurostat Eurostat ("European Statistical Office"; also DG ESTAT) is a department of the European Commission ( Directorate-General), located in the Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statist ...

, whereas the population of a Finnish 'taajama' is usually around 80% of the respective 'functional urban area' as defined by Eurostat. For example, in 2013 the 'functional urban area' of

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

had a population of 845,971, while the 'functional urban area' of

Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Tampere is approximately , while the metropolitan area has a population of approximately . It is the most populous mu ...

had a population of 364,992. However, according to official statistics, the "taajama" of Tampere is larger than the "byområde" of Aarhus
eurostat.ec
. This suggests that direct comparisons between Finland and the other Nordic countries may be problematic.

List

Note that the population numbers from the countries are from different years, as Statistics Finland, Statistics Norway and Statistics Denmark release the statistic yearly (albeit at different times of the year), Statistics Sweden only release the figures every five years. The Norwegian data is from 2013
and 2018,Population and land area in urban settlements, December 2018
/ref> the Danish data is from 2014, the Swedish is from 2010 and the Finnish is from 2017. Also note that some of the statistics have been updated since the first note was made, so some statistics may be from 2018, while others from 2013, etc.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Urban Areas in the Nordic Countries Nordic countries

Lists of populated places in Denmark Lists of populated places in Finland Lists of populated places in Norway Lists of populated places in Sweden

List

See also

Notes

References